Winter Will Not Be Stopped

It's the time of year when I'm putting the "trees to bed" for winter. Basically, gathering all the trees that aren't already in a greenhouse and putting them into a greenhouse. I try to enjoy the fall colours and wait until most of the leaves have fallen off. Then I start sealing the greenhouses up, which involves rolling down the plastic on the side, re-installing the end walls (ends of the greenhouse), cinching everything down with wiggle wire. Yup, it's called wiggle wire! And another project this fall was the installation of new greenhouse heaters. This last project involved quite a bit of electrical work and fortunately for me, I am already an electrician!  Otherwise, it would have cost a lot more money.

You can use other forms of heat, such as a propane heater, or wood stove, but we have everything electrical because we can control it more precisely with thermostats. 

If you're wondering, no,  we don't heat the greenhouses all winter. The heat is only used when we see that the temperatures are going to drop significantly and that means below -10C. For trees in containers that don't have any additional protection, such as being buried temporarily in the ground, on buried in snow, etc., need a helping hand. Temperatures below -10C represent a potentially dangerous situation. So, we use the heaters to ensure the greenhouses stay around -8C or so. 

We are in a zone 6b, and winter temperatures are usually 0 to -5C however, we get cold snaps where overnight temperatures can get to -20 to -23C.  During the cold snaps, maybe one week here, and another week there, later on, the daytime temperatures in the greenhouse will warm right up during those cold and sunny periods and be above freezing. But once night comes around, the temperature inside will equalize with the outside temperature. This is something to keep in mind if you don't have experiences with greenhouses and think that an unheated greenhouse is going to be sufficient protection for your trees. It will not. 

There are a number of ways to protect your container trees in winter. I have talked about this on several different videos on our YouTube channel. The amount of protection, if necessary, is going to depend on a number of factors. But make no mistake, trees in containers in most Canadian locations will need some protection. So, do a little on homework on some options and make sure your trees get through the toughest time of year. Feel free to email anytime if you have questions on the subject. I suggest trying to watch the videos first.

Stay warm and enjoy the last days of autumn.